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The other employee is likely few decades older than the OP and the OP thinks that "old people" are out of touch and stuck in the past and that they don't know anything about technology or trends. Sometimes this is merely a perception that the younger person has and they cling only to comments/discussions that prove that perception.
I'd guess that the younger worker is in their 20s and the older worker is probably around 50 or 55.
If they fail to understand Business and Social media, they are stuck in the past and out of touch.
The team was not put together as an idea of the OP, but by executive management, no doubt.
There are certain people that are stuck in the past and can't move on. Honestly I have had a theory this is related to medication. Statins imho. Do not engage. Just do what you need to do and ignore her. But I feel your pain. I used to have a co worker group that was stuck in the past and it was torture. They just could not consider any other way of doing things rather than ways things have always been.
Now I moved to a younger group and it is soooo amazing. They are always looking for good ideas and are wiling to examine whatever they did or are doing. I was never able to change the older groups way of thinking. Even if I came up with a good idea it was like they couldn't remember it after a few hours. I used to have a father with dementia and he couldn't remember short term things but only long term. I think there is something related to that. Like older policies take up more space in the brain so they are easier for these people to process... and want to.
I just got a new manager he loves to print everything he heads to the copier about every 5 minutes from his office he hates texting, IM, facebook anything related to current technology. If you email him something if he doesn't print it he can't remember what you sent him. He has stacks of paper on his desk in piles he flips though them when you ask him about something he's in his late 50's. He refuses to text anyone either his communication is stuck in the 80's and 90s call leaves a voice message then you call him back leave a voice message to ask a 5 word question I joke with him I'm going to get him a pager to remind him to call me back.
My friend's co-worker used to complain all the time about change and tech.
The VP wanted everything automated. He couldn't wait until 3 pm to get the information needed to run the business. It was hurting the company. There were 2 analysts doing everything manually.
When one of them quit, the VP hired an analyst with programming skills. The long time analyst that worked for the VP for several years complained about everything. Complained about all the changes. She also complained about lack of sleep and working 60+ hours weeks to get everything done.
She could have refused to change. She got to work fewer hours each week, and got more sleep. She was less sleep deprived and more satisfied with her job. After the first month, she was all gung ho.
Fast forward 6 months later, the VP has his information and reports ready to go at 10 am. She comes in at 9 and leaves early. Both employees may work around 7 hour days with lots of idle time.
Co-workers still need to follow the lead of their management. If the policy changed from 20 years, the problem employee needs to follow orders or go to the competition that does it the old way.
The issue is more likely the person needs training on social media. Back when I worked for banks, I worked at one place that put a high priority on training and the second place didn't. Guess which place did better? She's negative because she's not able to use these things. Teach her how to use them and guess what? She'll see them in a positive light.
A relative thought social media was stupid and useless. Except for businesses, and people who have things to sell. Then it was good. Then I asked -- if social media only used by businesses -- how can they reach anyone? The idea of using it as promotion only works if there are people to promote to.
So I'd ask her if she was on various social media, and then show her.
I have a coworker that’s been with the company for close to 25 years. She’s been in the same position for all of those 25 years. I work in a very small department, and it is just her and I on the weekends. The department is “open office” so we sit very close to each other. No opportunity to move.
Anyway, she’s stuck in 1998, or something. Every weekend it’s something new. “Did you hear we’re doing this?” “Why don’t we do that? In 1998, we used to…” She makes it sound like our competition is leaps and bounds ahead of us, and here we are just spinning our tires. She was appalled that we have a Social Media Team! “What a waste of money!” she said. “I can’t believe we hire people to just sit on Facebook all day!” I explained to her that the majority of the customers reach out via Facebook, Twitter etc. for answers, and in fact, the Social Media team probably has one of the most stressful jobs because they are the voice of the company. She did not want to hear any of that, though. Any change to our department or job functions is met with resistance. “We never used to do that..” or “Oh, I’m not going to do that!”
I have also tried my best to explain that I feel the company is going down the right road, and the things we did in the past would not work now. She seems very fed up with the job and company, but would not dare to seek other employment. I have gone as far as suggesting that she look at other companies (including our “awesome competition”), but she said she has invested too much time here, and would never dream of starting over. I feel it would be rude to simply put on earbuds at this point, and have tried to keep my talking limited “uh huh”, “yeah..”, “oh wow”, but it’s getting old. At first, it was nice to learn about the history of the company from a first-hand perspective, but it just gets to be too much. Short of me moving on (trying), what do you suggest in the meantime?
It is the management team's responsibility to provide education programs for employees to keep up with the changes and trends if they want their company up-to-date or in the advance.
It's not your business to suggest your co-worker should look for a job somewhere else. She makes decision/plan for herself.
Besides, being a nerd about Facebook, Twitter, Skype, Instagram, Pinterest, Whatsapp, Snapchat... etc., does not mean you are a valuable employee at your company. If you are not a Doctor, Dentist, Lawyer, Nurse, IT worker, Sale Person, Education Instructor or in the management, and if you only work in the office, doing general reception, clerical job, you only need to know about Microsoft Word, Excel, Outlook, some knowledge about PowerPoint and/or some specific software that your company provides for your job. What do you need to know about the Social Media for? Sometimes, office girls/guys just want to show off things in their personal life to each other at work too much. That’s a waste of time, or stealing time at work, and they don’t focus on their job. And at the end of the day, they complain with each other that they could not finish their job, it was too much to do, blah, blah, blah...
I’m not in the IT field. I don’t have deep knowledge about IT. But I’m very good at Word, Excel, Outlook and PowerPoint, and I perform my job very well. My leader has no doubt about me. I don’t care to talk too much at work. I’m not afraid of changes. I know how to use the Social Media sites, but I don’t care to go there much. Lots of people just want to spy on each other. It’s annoying.
Lots of young people think older people are stuck in the past, or envy with them, cannot talk to them because of the difference between generations, and wish them go, so you can get their job. Wait until your turn.
The issue with the co-worker in question, isn't so much that she is "stuck" in 1998, but that she is a "Negative Nancy." That kind of attitude can be poisonous if it spreads.
Think about it. Imagine if she was perky and positive, self-deprecating because she hadn't adjusted to the world of social media, but still was looking for ways to help others with the skills she did have. Such an employee, while not 100% productive would be loved by all. The problem is that this woman isn't that, and her attitude is a giant energy sink for the OP.
Would her attitude change if she was trained to modern office standards?
Nowadays most people, employees and management, have no ideas of what hard working and loyalty mean anymore.
For most employees, they often jump job because they feel fed up with BS at the workplace, with annoying, yappy, gossiping, a**kissing co-workers, or the very introverts who never care to talk much (this can p*ss off the extroverts also), and the corrupted management who treat employees with no respect and unfairness, just favor those who always flatter and bribe them over the hard-working ones who just care about doing their job well.
For most in the management, they are like authoritarians. They don't want the long-time employees in the company because those employees are experienced and know a lot about the company. They feel threaten by those employees, although they are not supposed to feel that way; it's just because they are insecure. They want to get rid of those long-time employees as fast as they can and hire new and younger ones because they think that way they could save money for the boss and they can control the newer ones easily. But that does not always work, if there are smart enough to know how to analyze the costs of situations of firing, hiring and training and lawsuits sometimes.
At my company there are quite a few employees who worked/work for 19, 20, 25, 30 and 35 years in the same position. They do their job well. They rarely called in sick. They were/are very caring. With the money earned from working with one company, they raised their children, grandchildren to be successful young men and women. I don't see anything wrong with that. They know how to balance their work and personal life. That’s great and smart. They don’t have to follow the ones who care too much about promotions and money and keep jumping jobs. And who knows those who are too “ambitious” and might earn more money, but never feel happy with their life, and are always cranky, angry, jealous with others and have bad health.
At my company, for those who had been working here for a long time and when they left in a good term, the big boss always gave a very nice farewell party to them. It was very touching. That’s why I like to work with my company (employer to be exact).
From what written in the OP, I can smell jealousy. Whatever characters or personalities your co-worker has, it’s none of your business as long as she does her job well. Your boss (her boss) knows what she and you are like. Whatever you like about or do on the Social Media, that’s up to you. It does not mean she has to like or do the same as you. It’s not that everybody has to be the same. You have to understand that everybody is different. If you don’t accept that fact, that’s your problem. It sounds like you want her to go, so you can get her job. You can deny it, I still don’t believe you. Yeah, she’s been there for a long time, she has seniority, a good number of weeks for vacation, good benefits, and if she likes her job and does it well, why would she want to look for a job somewhere else and to start all over again? That would be stupid. I know very well lots of new employees are jealous with older employees and always try to find their “faults” and go to report to the supervisor/manager/leader. They hope those long-time employees to be fired, so they could get their positions. I know so well.
The big problems with the workplaces today are more than half of people in the world (employers and employees) are greedy, corrupted, narcissistic, impatient, disloyal, jealous, judgmental too much. They don’t see their own faults, just see or try to find out others faults and try to put others down, and so they think they can make themselves higher. That’s very low, mean and disgusting.
OP, mind your own business, shut your mouth, work hard, focus on your job, do your job well and you can keep your job. And if you want to stay, stay. If you want to find job somewhere else, do it. Don’t be jealous with your co-worker(s). That does not help you to move up.
Excellent post. In many cases it's not that the older employee is unwilling to change, but simply no longer gets all excited and hip hip hurrah about the latest fad that's different from yesterday's fad which differed from last year's. Been there, done that, got the award certificate in my drawer. Meanwhile the fad chaser still can't figure out how to do a simple budget request.
I have a coworker that’s been with the company for close to 25 years. She’s been in the same position for all of those 25 years. I work in a very small department, and it is just her and I on the weekends. The department is “open office” so we sit very close to each other. No opportunity to move.
Anyway, she’s stuck in 1998, or something. Every weekend it’s something new. “Did you hear we’re doing this?” “Why don’t we do that? In 1998, we used to…” She makes it sound like our competition is leaps and bounds ahead of us, and here we are just spinning our tires. She was appalled that we have a Social Media Team! “What a waste of money!” she said. “I can’t believe we hire people to just sit on Facebook all day!” I explained to her that the majority of the customers reach out via Facebook, Twitter etc. for answers, and in fact, the Social Media team probably has one of the most stressful jobs because they are the voice of the company. She did not want to hear any of that, though. Any change to our department or job functions is met with resistance. “We never used to do that..” or “Oh, I’m not going to do that!”
I have also tried my best to explain that I feel the company is going down the right road, and the things we did in the past would not work now. She seems very fed up with the job and company, but would not dare to seek other employment. I have gone as far as suggesting that she look at other companies (including our “awesome competition”), but she said she has invested too much time here, and would never dream of starting over. I feel it would be rude to simply put on earbuds at this point, and have tried to keep my talking limited “uh huh”, “yeah..”, “oh wow”, but it’s getting old. At first, it was nice to learn about the history of the company from a first-hand perspective, but it just gets to be too much. Short of me moving on (trying), what do you suggest in the meantime?
The other employee is likely few decades older than the OP and the OP thinks that "old people" are out of touch and stuck in the past and that they don't know anything about technology or trends. Sometimes this is merely a perception that the younger person has and they cling only to comments/discussions that prove that perception.
I'd guess that the younger worker is in their 20s and the older worker is probably around 50 or 55.
Yeah. I mean, being in your 50's doesn't mean you are out of touch at all. Not in today modern world anyway. I like to use my dad as an example since he is more computer savvy than most people. But I know that is not typical in his case.
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